


Cheap Imitations

by wearetheonlyone



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s11e09 It Takes You Away, F/F, Reunions, Space Wives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-05 03:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17911505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearetheonlyone/pseuds/wearetheonlyone
Summary: Set during "It Takes You Away"What if someone had appeared for the Doctor to stop her from making everyone else leave?





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in less than an hour so its not that detailed and definitely awful but i just wanted to write space wives even though they will both be ooc???

“Graham, you’ve got to let her go- that’s not Grace. She’s fake,” said the Doctor. Her voice was rising in volume as the panic and fear washed over her.

“She’s got to be real, hasn’t she? I mean look at her,” replied Graham. He lightly gestured to Grace, who, correctly to him, was standing next to him in the flesh- alive and breathing. But they had seen her fall from the crane and watched her lie in the casket so they knew at the back of their minds that she wasn’t real.

“She’s not real, Graham. I’m sorry.”

“You know, _Sweetie_ , I was under the impression that I was very real. I mean, not everyone can pull off these curves,” said another voice. This one was new in the conversation, sharply cutting through the others with flair and flirty edge to her tone.

The Doctor felt her hearts drop to her stomach as she heard the voice ring through the bedroom that they were all stationed in, the area around them shaking violently as the Solitract tried to cope with having so many people in its realm. She could feel tears prick at the corner of her eyes and she hadn’t even turned to face the owner of the voice yet, her mere voice alone sending jolts of pleasure and sadness through her core. As Graham looked up at her, from his seat on the bed, he saw her mouth hung wide open and he knew straight away what that look in her eye meant- Yaz and Erik may not have caught the emotion locked away in her eye but he could see it clear as day.

Shaking, the small, timid blonde shuffled on her feet as she turned her body slowly to face the taller woman who had just walked into the bedroom from the on the stairs. The other woman began to walk towards the Doctor, swinging her hips as she did so with her heels clicking against the wooden floor of the room, softening once her feet landed on the carpet laid out on the floor beneath the bed.

Once the woman had reached the Doctor, she looked down at her with a coy smile. Her large, dirty blonde curls surrounding her frame, outlining her figure against the darker wood of the walls and silhouetting her face. Almost instantly, the smaller blonde was able to recall where her outfit was from- she wore a low-cut, light grey dress that stopped at her mid-thigh with thin, black legging underneath that poured into tall, knee-high boots, and it was all topped off with a sleeveless leather jacket. It was the same outfit she had worn when she had regenerated from Mels into River.

Silently, the Doctor outstretched her hand, placing it tenderly on River’s sleeveless arm. The breath in her throat choked as her hand met a solid body, rather than a projection.

Reading her mind, like always, River whispered to the Doctor. “Not a projection this time, Sweetie.”

With a quiet whimper, the Doctor finally moved and she wrapped her arms around her wife’s waist, tightly“I’ve come all the way from Germany to see you, my love,” whispered River again, leaning close to the Doctor’s face- still grinning.

_Germany?_ The Doctor sprung back sharply without warning, her eyes wide, and she continued to back away from her wife, toppling over slightly as she caught her feet on laces. _She had forgotten when Mels had regenerated ___

__“Germany?” asked Yaz, curiously._ _

__“Yes. 1938- I attempted to kill Hitler but quite a few people were not happy about that, including the Doctor.” River turned her attention away from Yaz, looking back at the Doctor. “Always one to follow the rules, aren’t you?”_ _

__“You can’t be here. How are you here?” asked the Doctor, repeatedly as her breath started to become heavier and heavier. “You’ve just regenerated- and tried to kill me!”_ _

__“I made up for it! You’re still alive, aren’t you?”_ _

__“ _You_ ,” the Doctor got up from where she had fallen onto the ground like a bullet and charged over to River. “Don’t you dare try to mess with me using her image- you’re a cheap imitation of the person that she was and that alone sickens me.”_ _

__The Time Lord turned her back on River, shunning her despite how badly it hurt both of her hearts to turn away from her face and not savour their time together. “You two,” she quickly snapped the attention of Erik and Graham. “Your wives are both fakes. Leave through the portal, now.”_ _

__“What do you mean? Surely we’re real,” said Grace. Her hands were wrapped around one of Graham’s hands softly._ _

__“Ryan is out there, Graham. We’ve got to help him,” added Yaz, helpfully. Hanne had informed them of Ryan’s whereabouts before she was launched through the portal by the imposter version of Trina, but even that wasn’t enough to push Erik into rejecting her._ _

__River moved closer towards the Doctor’s back and held her hand softly- she knew the Doctor would never turn around to look at her right now; especially with the current task at hand but she was relieved when the Doctor didn’t release her hand and instead opted for holding it tighter._ _

__“He’ll be fine, love, he’s a strong boy,” said the imposter Grace. That was Graham’s breaking point._ _

__“See, that’s where you’ve failed. Grace would never leave Ryan behind, and I wish you could be her but you’re not,” frowned Graham._ _

__Slowly, the imposter Grace lifted her arm, like Trina had done to Hanne, and sent a force towards him that sent him flying through the portal and landing on the ground on the other side with a harsh crash, as well as a particularly sharp rock digging into his spine. The mention of Ryan had triggered a thought in Erik as he realised that Hanne was also out there, alone and without him. His grief and regret of being a poor parent finally caught up to him and a panicked wave of insecurity and doubts._ _

__Quickly, he turned to Trina. “We’ve got to get Hanne- it’s not safe for her alone!” he called out to her, panicked._ _

__“Wouldn’t you much rather be here with me?” asked Trina, moving a hand to cup his face._ _

__He sighed. “You know I would love to be here, but I’ve got to take of Hanne,” he replied and Trina was not satisfied by his answer. She lifted her arm once again, aiming her palm at him and he, like the others, was sent flying through the portal without a word of warning aside from her raised palm._ _

__Now, it was only River, the Doctor and Yaz in the bedroom. The room around them was shaking and they all knew that they didn’t have much time together anymore, even as much as they attempted to block the thought from their minds as the ground shook beneath them, nearly sending them off balance. Desperately, the Doctor spun around and locked her around River, tightly hugging her waist and pressing her face into the other’s collar bones, and she could feel River wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s shoulders and head just as tightly._ _

__“Doctor-” began Yaz, but the Doctor cut her off harshly._ _

__“I know she isn’t real, Yaz, but let me have this- just for a moment,” replied the Doctor. Her voice was high and close to breaking, which told Yaz that the Doctor was hiding her face because she was about to cry._ _

__The three of them all stood in silence, aside from the quiet mumbles from the couple in front of Yaz, and they were sure they were going to stay there forever- but a plank of wood falling from the ceiling, nearly landing on all three of them, shocked them back into real time._ _

__“We need to go, I’m sorry.”_ _

__Rapidly, the Doctor glanced at Yaz, scanning her features, before cutting back to River. “I love you- I know you’re not her but… I needed to say it.”_ _

__She released the imposter’s hand and stepped away from her with a large frown on her face, looking at the ground, avoiding River’s gaze. “What? So you can go spend time with your new fling?”_ _

__Chuckling dryly, the Doctor looked up again at River. “Now I definitely know you’re not her. Goodbye, Sweetie.”_ _

__Raising her palm up without thinking, River glared at Yaz before the two of them appeared on the other side of the portal, falling onto the jagged rocks beneath them._ _


	2. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally don't even know why im writing this  
> idk i guess i just wanted to gush over river??

The Doctor and Yaz rolled through the mirror quickly, panting with sweat dripping down the back of their spines: both cold and warm. Yaz remained on the ground, her hair messy and her buns becoming loose as she desperately attempted to catch her breath. Meanwhile, the Doctor leapt to her feet, spinning around in a flurry to shatter the mirror behind them- the pieces falling to the ground like rain against concrete.

“You lot alright? ‘Cause Hanne said some weird stuff was happening when she came back and all,” asked Ryan. He was attempting to ignore the awkward atmosphere that the rest of his friends had brought along when they exited the portal- and Graham wouldn’t even acknowledge his presence in the slightest.

“Yeah,” breathed the Doctor, bouncing her head in a vaguely nodding like motion. “...just ran into a few… _problems_ …”

“Uh...problems? ‘Cause uh... Gran- Graham. Graham wouldn’t speak to me after he came runnin’ back through,” replied Ryan, as he pointed to Graham who was sat down on the bed with his eyes despondently staring at the broken mirror across the room.

Exhaling loudly, the Doctor moved her shoulders in a circular motion, flexing her fingers against each other, curling around her knuckles tightly. “The, uh, Solitract created an identical mirror universe of this house- in Norway but it could’ve gone further- we didn’t have the time and we were a bit distracted.”

“Distracted by what? It’s not like there’s gonna be other people there, right?” asked Ryan. If he hadn’t lost Hanne in the anti-zone then he would have been able to be in there with everyone else, but he also glad he wasn’t in there- he didn’t think he would be able to handle seeing his Nan again without crying.

She sighed, sagging her shoulders. “In order to try and get us to stay, it-” She paused, running a hand over her mouth and chin. “It took the forms of people that we knew.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah- oh. That’s a good way of summarising it,” replied the Doctor, pressing her lips together into a straight line, puffing out her cheeks slightly.

“I saw Grace,” said Graham without any warning. His eyes were still elsewhere, not looking up at any of them and not moving even in the slightest. They all knew he was still recovering, so none of them pressed him to speak again.

“And I saw Trina!” added Erik, panicked yet excited from the time he spent with her in that other world, even if she was an imposter.

“That woman was not my mother.”

Everyone fell silent. Ryan exchanged worried glances with Graham, or at least he tried to but Graham still didn’t look at him. It was probably hard because he was so much like her, and he knew him through her, reminding him of her every day.

“Doc,” called Graham, looking up at the Doctor slightly who tensed the moment that he called her name. She knew what he going to ask but she still looked over to him, trying to mask her fear and panic that rushed through her. “Who was that woman you saw?”

“I don’t want to talk about her. We need to go back to the TARDIS,” responded the Doctor quickly, attempting to distract them all from how she had reacted to River in the other universe. She didn’t even want to think about River right now- not with no many people around her.

“You loved her, didn’t you?” he asked, softly.

“I will never stop loving her- even after I’m gone.”

The Doctor attempted to storm out of the room but Yaz swiftly stepped in front of her, coming face to face with her rage-fuelled eyes that were becoming confused with grief and sadness as tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to tip over. Yaz placed both of her hands on the Doctor’s shoulders, holding her in place as all of her police training vanished from her mind as her eyes fell into the Doctor’s.

“Who was she? Because I think she’s gotta be pretty interesting if you loved her- and you said she killed you, which is confusing the hell out of me,” comforted Yaz. She was trying to lighten the mood; especially the Doctor’s so they could return to their usual bouncy, jokey atmosphere that was only sometimes (okay, most of the time) edged with terror.

“It’s not a happy story,” reminded the Doctor, her eyes were wide and glassy as she looked at Yaz.

“Most stories aren’t.”

The blonde weakly smiled at Yaz before turning around to stand beside the mirror again, ready to present her story to them all. Reaching into her jacket slowly, she removed a faded book- it was a dark blue with several idents on the cover which, as they were able to see it better, resembled the TARDIS but none of them wanted to touch on the subject. They all watched in anticipation as the Doctor ran her hands over the book lovingly, slipping into the ridges of the pages that were old and faded as if they had been tea-stained like Yaz and Ryan used to do to their history projects in Year Seven.

“That woman in there was called River Song- and she was the most brilliant, amazing… spectacular woman that you could ever imagine in your entire life. I was one of the luckiest people in the universe...I got to marry her,” spoke the Doctor. Her love for River was pouring unashamedly into her words as her hearts lifted as she recalled every moment that she spent with River but that just made her miss her more and more.

“You married her? But I thought you said she tried to kill you?” 

“Ah, yeah. She tried to do that twice- one time she wore poisonous lipstick, and I can say that being poisoned is not something enjoy. The other time was by Lake Silencio in America where she was possessed by a space suit and I couldn’t really get out of it because deaths are fixed in time; especially mine. It was this big thing with a lot of people waiting for me to die which is a bit rude, honestly.”

“But you’re here… you know, not dead,” added Ryan, gesturing to her standing there.

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to explain how you got out of that if it was fixed, Doc,” supported Graham, leaning back slightly as he pressed against his lower back with his palm.

“It was not easy. I accidentally tore apart all of space and time where everything in time was happening all at once, and the time and date never changed because I was still alive. There were dinosaurs flying across the sky and I had to persuade Winston Churchill that I wasn’t mad because he didn’t remember that we are good mates.”

Everyone looked at her in shock. That was definitely a story that they all needed to hear later when they were all in a better mood.

“And then this organisation-or they might have been another species of alien- called the Silence were trying to take over the world. The worst part was that I couldn’t even touch my wife ‘cause if I did, it started up time again which would reset the universe and I would die.”

“How’d you get out of it?”

“I got married.”


End file.
